Spring in the Glade

Our side flower bed under a blanket of snow. Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. February 19, 2012. (Photo by Betsy).

(Note:  All pictures may be enlarged by clicking on them once or twice.)

Betsy took the picture above this past Sunday.  These are some of the spring flowers that shot up during our mild winter.  Of course now that they are sending up flower stalks, we get snow and cold!

But one thing about Tennessee weather is that if you don’t like it stay around for a day — it will change.

Crocus in our side flower bed, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. February 21, 2012.

This picture was taken on Tuesday.  The snow is gone and we have a crocus in bloom.  I actually saw a crocus in bloom before the snow storm, but I didn’t get a picture.  It didn’t survive the storm.

It rained most of Wednesday, and just after dark the warning sirens here in the Glade went off.  Fortunately all we got was more rain.

Crocus in our flower bed. February 21, 2012.

Yesterday was a bright, warm, sunny, Spring-like day.  I can hardly wait to see what today brings.

Betsy Was Delighted

Our front yard, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. December 7, 2011.

(Note:  All pictures may be enlarged by clicking on them once or twice.)

If you know anything at all about Betsy, you know how much she loves snow.  It snowed here in the Glade yesterday, and Betsy was in a very happy mood.  She didn’t go out and build a snowman (we didn’t get that much snow), but she did get out to enjoy it.

The wreath on our back deck, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. December 7, 2011.

We had a wet snow that clung to just about everything.  It was what Betsy calls a perfect snow.

Trees in our yard, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. December 7, 2011.

It came down pretty heavy for a while and coated  the bare branches of the trees in our yard in a layer of white.

Snow-covered holly bush in front of our house, Fairlfied Glade, Tennessee. December 7, 2011.

We still have a few more days before Christmas, and we may not have a white Christmas, but the berries on the holly in front of our house looked very festive under all the snow.

I will admit that it was a pretty snow, and I’m glad Betsy’s happy.  Now that she’s had her snow, I’m ready for Spring.

If You Don’t Like Our Weather, Wait

Our side flower bed, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. April 11, 2010.

The picture above was taken a couple of weeks ago.  Almost all of our tulips are now gone, but the iris have started to bloom, so we still have color in our yard.

It’s a fairly common saying that if you don’t like the weather here in Tennessee, stick around for a few minutes — it will change.

We’ve enjoyed some beautiful weather this month.   As a matter of fact we had summer-like temperatures several days ago.  So Betsy and I were shocked when we noticed a freeze watch for our area Tuesday afternoon.  Tuesday was a chilly, rainy day, but it didn’t seem all that cold.  And then we got a text message from our friends Judy and Charlie who were hiking to the lodge atop Mount LeConte in the Smokies just east of here.  They were on the trail, but said it was snowing!

Betsy and I debated covering some of the roses and other flowers, but we knew we couldn’t begin to cover everything.  So we crossed our fingers and decided to hope the weather man was wrong.

Evidently the clouds stuck around longer than expected, because our temperatures stayed in the 40s over night.  Everything in the yard looked fine when we got up Wednesday morning.

And Judy and Charlie?  They woke up Wednesday morning to 8-10 inches of snow on the mountain.  Tennessee is never dull!

April Is An Interesting Month

Pink dogwood in our front yard, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. April 14, 2010.

April is an interesting month, although not always in a good way.  You know how April showers bring May flowers?  Well, we’ve had practically no rain at all this month.  I’m still hoping for May flowers,  however.

We had summer-like temperatures for most of last week.  We didn’t use the air-conditioner, but we did have the house open and fans running.  So you can imagine our shock and surprise when we got home from running some errands on Saturday afternoon to discover that a frost advisory had been issued for the Plateau.  We moved our container roses into the garage just to be on the safe side.  Fortunately we didn’t have any frost and so we moved them back out yesterday.

Don’t get me wrong — I’m not complaining.  We’ve had beautiful weather and beautiful flowers.  Our pink dogwood tree (above) is about as pretty as it has been since we moved here.

I am finding, however, that I must be slowing down with old age as it seems to take me longer and longer to do everything that needs to be done outside.  So If these postings become a little more sporadic than they’ve been in the past, rest assured that it is because the weather has been good and I have been working outside.  I haven’t forgotten about you and will endeavor to keep up as best as I can.

Spring, Wherefore Art Thou?

More of our roses from 2009.

We had three days of beautiful weather earlier in the week, but the last two days have been cold and rainy.  I’ve  started a couple of projects out in the yard, but I haven’t been able to make much progress.  And if this cold weather continues I’m going to need to split more wood and carry it to the garage so my Beautiful Bride will be comfortable in the evenings.

Our crocus have bloomed and are just about completely gone.  Nothing else has begun to bloom.  I will say that the grass is greening up very nicely, so I guess I will have to think about checking out the mower one of these days.

I’ve started to partially uncover the roses.  Most of them are showing signs of new growth and need to be cut back.  I won’t completely uncover the roses until I’m fairly confident that freezing temperatures are behind us.

So while I’m waiting for  Spring to get serious about coming and staying here on the Plateau, I’ll try to stay warm by remembering what the roses looked like last year.

Betsy’s Getting Her Wish!

Our front yard in the early afternoon, Fairfield Glade. January 29, 2010.

I can’t begin to tell you how happy my Beautiful Bride is this morning.  She’s been waiting for almost four years for a day like this.

She actually started smiling Friday afternoon.  It began snowing late Friday morning and by early afternoon the street, driveway and yard were pretty much covered in white as you can see from the picture above.

The wall in front of our house in the late afternoon. January 29, 2010.

But much to Betsy’s delight, it just kept snowing.  By late afternoon we had a couple of inches on the ground.  Even our newly repaired wall looked good in the snow.

Still snowing after dark. January 29, 2010.

Best of all it just kept snowing.  This is what it looked like just before I began writing this post.  I don’t know how much snow we will finally have — it’s supposed to keep snowing until noon Saturday.  Some forecasts say we will have 7 to 9 inches by the time the storm ends.

I predict Betsy will be absolutely giddy today!

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I’m grateful for the beauty of newly fallen snow and the way it makes the world seem new and clean.

We’re in a Deep Freeze

The cascade behind our house. January 3, 2009.

I hope the year 2010 has gotten off to a great start for each and every one of you.  By the way, how do you say 2010?  Is it “Two Thousand Ten” or “Twenty Ten”?  I hear it both ways around here.

Now that the holidays are over we can get back to normal here on the Plateau.  Of course winter means that there is not a great deal to do outdoors except to split and  bring in firewood.  Perhaps winter days will mean that I’ll have more time to get caught up on all the indoor projects I have on my list.

One thing I would like to happen is for us to get out of the deep freeze.  Temperatures in the single digits are not to our liking!  Fortunately the single digits have been overnight, but we haven’t been above freezing ALL YEAR!

The picture above shows the icy cascade behind our house on the edge of the golf course fairway.  We’ve seen ice there a few times before, but I don’t think it has ever been this thick.

The saddest thing (at least as far as Betsy is concerned) is that we have all this cold weather with almost no snow.  We woke up Saturday to a very light dusting of snow, but that’s all we’ve seen so far.

Be Careful What You Wish For

Roses on our dining room table. June 5, 2009.

As many of you know, we had two years of drought up here on the Plateau.  That meant carrying a lot of water to water the roses and other plants.  During that time we kept hoping for rain.

This year we have had slightly more rain than average, so everything is lush and green.  As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered a downside to all this rain.  It rained here on Thursday when we went to Hendersonville to check on my parents.  When we got home Thursday evening we noticed many rose stems beaten down by the rain.  Yesterday I spent an hour or so cleaning up the rose beds.

But I couldn’t just throw out all of those blossoms.  I try to bring Betsy a rose bud each day so we have several bud vases.  But yesterday I brought in enough blossoms to fill them all.  Our dining room table is a little crowded, but it sure does smell good in the house!

And speaking of the drawbacks to all of this rain, the grass is so lush and green that I’m spending more time mowing than I did last year.  And don’t even get me started on the weeds!

Don’t get me wrong — I’m delighted with the rain.  It’s just that between the trips to Hendersonville and the yard I’ve got way behind on visiting my blogging friends.  Please don’t give up on me –  I haven’t forgotten about you.

Texas Weather

Damage from the storm. April 18, 2009.

I mentioned in my last post that we didn’t get to see our granddaughters play softball because of the Texas weather wouldn’t cooperate.  We knew before we got to Houston that the outlook wasn’t very favorable, but we weren’t prepared for Texas weather.

It rained most of the day on Saturday.  But in the afternoon the wind picked up and the rain started blowing horizontally.  There was no warning from the Weather Service, but I have rarely seen such rain.  Seabrook, Texas, (where we were) got about seven inches of rain in a little over an hour.  Streets were flooded and I thought I would have to convert our car into a boat.

And then there was the wind!  The picture above shows the backyard of our son after the storm.  That heavy propane grill was blown over — it took two of us to put it back.  If you look carefully at the picture above (it can be enlarged), you’ll see the leg of a chair that went through their fence.  It was later reported that a tornado touched down a couple of miles from their house — I’m glad we didn’t know about that at the time!

All in all I now have new respect for the slogan ‘Don’t Mess with Texas’ — or at least the weather!

Tennessee Weather

Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. February 18, 2009.

Mother Nature put on quite a show here in the Glade yesterday.  We had rain when Betsy and I made our weekly run to the grocery stores in the morning.  The rain was steady, but not too hard.  However, shortly after we got home, the sky got darker and the tornado-warning sirens went off.  A few minutes later it started to rain and hail.  That’s when I took the picture above from our small front porch.

I stayed on the porch for a few minutes to watch the rain and hail and to see if the water was washing away parts of the rose beds (it wasn’t).   The hail seemed to come in waves — lots of hail for a minute, no hail at all, and then lots of hail again.  As is usually the case, the hail was mostly small pieces of ice — less than about a quarter-inch in size.

A large piece of hail. February 18, 2009.

I was about to go back into the house when I heard a ‘thud’ above my head and this large chunk of ice (right) bounced off the roof and landed on the driveway.  I was quite surprised by the size and by the fact that I only saw one piece ice that large.

I was also very glad that I had a roof over my head at that moment!